Iris Stalzer (SPD), the newly elected mayor of the North Rhine-Westphalia city of Herdecke, has been the victim of a knife attack. SPD parliamentary group leader Matthias Miersch said in Berlin, “She was stabbed. We are thinking of her and wish that she survives this terrible act.” Miersch added that the party could not comment on the motives behind the attack and that the SPD is deeply affected.
According to Bild daily, Stalzer was found with 13 stab wounds to her stomach and back in her home, where her adoptive children, a 15-year-old boy and a 17-year-old girl, were both present. The boy told police that his mother had been attacked by several men on the street, Bild reported. The daily added that police took the teenager away for questioning in handcuffs.
Der Spiegel wrote that there had been a previous case of domestic violence in the Stalzer household in the summer of this year. The politician's daughter had used a knife against the 57-year-old, the report said.
Chancellor Friedrich Merz (CDU) expressed shock over the attack. “We have received news of a heinous act from Herdecke. It must now be quickly clarified,” Merz wrote on his official X account on Tuesday. He added, “We are concerned for the life of the designated mayor Iris Stalzer and hope for her full recovery. My thoughts are with her family and loved ones.”
CDU parliamentary group leader Jens Spahn also expressed hope that Stalzer would survive and emphasized that the circumstances of the attack must be clarified quickly. The 57-year-old Stalzer won the mayoral runoff on September 28. Backed by the SPD and the Greens, she secured 52.2 percent of the vote, defeating the CDU candidate. According to the city, her official inauguration was scheduled for November 4. Stalzer is a lawyer and had previously served on the Herdecke city council.
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